Building Description

An architect’s passion project, a home for his family influenced by his travels was what Tay Creggan was destined to be. This original plan however did not come to fruition. In 1892 funds ran dry and the building stood incomplete. So how did this unfinished project become one of Melbourne’s finest examples of the Victorian Queen Anne Revival style?

Tay Creggan is historically significant as a reminder of the way of life of the wealthiest citizens of Victoria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It is on the Victorian Heritage Register and is architecturally significant as one of the finest examples in Victoria of the Victorian Queen Anne Revival style, incorporating many Elizabethan-period features, and as one of most picturesque houses built in Victoria in the late nineteenth century. It is significant as one of the finest works of the prominent Melbourne architect Guyon Purchas, whose late nineteenth and early twentieth-century houses exemplify the Arts and Crafts approach to the ‘total work of art’.

Historic guests include Princess Margaret (1975), the Ballet Russes, Anna Pavlova (1920), artist Constance Stokes (1933) and Hollywood’s Charlotte’s Web (2005) was filmed in the ornate front rooms.

Strathcona purchased Tay Creggan in 1969 and opened Australia’s first independent Year 9 girls’ campus. It is now the home of the forward-thinking TC Envision program.

Exuberance of every kind in one of Australia’s most significant houses.

What's On

Visitors can view an online tour video of Tay Creggan. Guided through the house you can learn interesting facts about its history and architectural significance. You can also tour it as a Minecraft edition.

Images courtesy of Tay Creggan.